true, but if you look at war documentaries kids were just older then, hard to explain why a 20 year old looks so young now. Kids reach puberty earlier now, but ten just stay kids until about 30. and adults? "my dad is another kid thats grown old"
What a cool little story. I love these old Hot Rod stories. Especially when it's about family and the guy getting the girl at the end. The 29 Model A was Cool.
Wholesome Goodness?? Fighting, playing chicken, stealing cars. You're thinking of The Cleavers. The '50's were more Zip Guns, Switchblade and Brass Knuckles than Wally and The Beav'.
Decent show of yesteryear and loved the old cars that I saw on the streets growing up back then......glad I watched it! Robert Fuller did a great job as a "bad guy" in this one.
@Janx I also have seen about 20,000 movies (starting with Tarzan and Abbot & Costello etc.), and I guess that 19,900 of them were better than this one here. Perhaps I missed the irony in your post. But I must confess that I only watched the first ten minutes or so of Teenage Thunder and then started reading the comments. What do you think: Should I invest another 60 of those precious minutes remainig after a pretty long life?
@@garyolsen3409 I'm almost 80 years old and I never called a film a show. Nor have I ever heard anybody else call it that. It was a movie. Before my time, it was called a motion picture. I could stand this movie for just about twenty minutes and gave up. I was a teenager back in the era of this film. Thankfully I was never involved with shenanigans like this. I must have lived a sheltered life. The reason I watched this movie in the first place was because I wanted to see the location shots in the mid-1950's. I had hoped to see some old buses or trains. Trolleys would have been icing on the cake. I don't know where this movie was filmed. Probably somewhere near Los Angeles. The San Fernando Drag Strip was a good clue. If I had seen any old buses or trolleys, I could have identified the location. I'm a transportation historian.
@@Jeff-uj8xi The reason I commented was because you said, "first time seeing this SHOW." So now you've said it at least once if you never said it before
Pacoima!! Sun Valley!!! SFV Road!!! Also where all of the Movie Car Rental places were, and BIKES too...back when. Well, a LOT of them. Got my old BSA chopper at one of the Last ones.....was orig. a Triumph/BSA dealer, then supplied wartime-painted scooters for a lot of the war movies in the 60's/70's etc.
Legend has it Johnny said hell with going back the service station. Month later Johnny and Betty booked town without ever paying for the car. Johnny and Betty ended up in North Carolina after a few Moonshine bootleg runs. Ran into a fella named Lee Petty and Johnny ran ended up racing a few seasons with Nascar. Johnny chain smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day and slamming 12 packs of beer at a time got to be to much and started butting heads with drivers and Nascar booted him out. Johnny went back to his home town to work at the service station till 1979. Betty stayed in North Carolina and hooked up with Benny Parsons and has a few kids and lived happily ever after. Shortly after 1980 Johnny moved somewhere in Indiana in a small trailer on some farm land dealing Luds and Cocaine out of the trailer and thats the last we heard from him.
@@johnmccree8941 On a side note and update. Sgt Benson is, to this day, still manning the desk at the LAC, being overlooked for promotion for what amounts to be for decades. Sgt Benson holds two National, state and local law enforcement records. The first for holding the longest ever position of police seargent, in the history of these United States. Secondly for holding the record for the longest ever "On Duty' shift ! Edit: Rumor has it that Sgt Benson is currently being detained on the suspicion of being involved in the 7th largest Fentanil import ring in Orange County. Further updates will be divulged as they come to hand.
This looks like something that got thrown together when the actors and crew had some days off from the TV shows they were doing. Back In The Day, it was actually easier to make a cheap movie in a few days, and somehow get it into drive-ins and such - below the radar, so to speak. Check the credits, and compare them to TV shows and B-movies from the same era; you'll see the names of people who went on to long careers in Hollywood, extending 20 years or more. Cheapies - they're FUN! They're HISTORY! They're AMERICA!
The other night I watched one of these teen-angst movies that was much worse than this one. I think it was called The Wild Ride, and I watched it because a 23 year old Jack Nicholson starred in it. He was still wet behind the ears and there wasn't much even he could do with the truly crappy dialogue, but he was kinda fun to watch and you could tell he had some talent. I'm glad he didn't get discouraged and quit the biz altogether after that turkey...'cause he's given us a lot of great work over the years.
Very interesting and informative article Thank you for your hard work& research. Yes the houses looked beautiful,sad to such change,+ abandonment. You have me now as subscriber to your channel. Jan from Vancouver BC 🇨🇦🪶☺️👍
Really enjoyed this video. It was LOL FUNNY. I've been a viewer for a while now and recently had extra time to do nothing but watch TV. I Binge watched WA from your very first video through the years. I gained a new respect and admiration for your dedication. Thank you.
The kid is 18, lives in a house with 2 nice parents, has a pool and obviously many advantages but steal a car from a friend (who gave him a job and spoke up for him), steals a car from a car lot, speeds in a borrowed car and acts more like a 15 year old punk that a grown man. This guy is really messed up.
The Bert character, Johnny's boss, had way too much of the "Turn the other cheek" mindset. The kid vandalizes his station, steals his car, and Bert still treats him like some kind of hero. Not much of a coherent message for young people trying to develop a sense of right and wrong.
1:16:02, 8:17 I like the way the hot rod and the (1950 ?) Oldsmobile seem to have almost exactly the same speedometer, with only a chrome ring added around the perimeter to make them a little different. This was a about as low budget as it gets. Still, it's good to see Robert Fuller playing a complete jerk in contrast to his generally positive roles. He also did a good job playing a pyromaniac in the "Fire" episode of Highway Patrol.
The "Teenage Kisses" song sounds like it's from the 1920's instead of the 1950's. Johnny looks like he's doing his best James Dean. Overall, I like the film and the old Hot Rodz.
@@briseboy When the infrastructure is ready, I’ll think about it. Can’t get away from the need for fuels though. Only difference is the exhaust pipe is relocated. Electric or conventional both need fuel 🤷♂
@@henerygreen578 Agree 100% . The only guys who did all the shit that this guy did ended up in prison . Speeding is one thing , stealing cars is another matter ! Though I grew up in the early / mid 60's in INDY . No normal boy would have done any of this shit !
@@indycharlie Well, no. By the mid-60's everybody was getting stoned. The culture had changed and these teen-angst, drive in movies went all psychedelic on us.
Well , maybe where you live . But I am 73 and I can tell you with 100% certainty . There was NO widespread use of pot in the-Indy area in the mid-60.s !! I had a buddy who lived in Hamilton Co. Indiana who got his draft notice in July 1968 . We had "heard " about pot via TV and Drive In shows. He wanted to score some and he nor I knew where to get any , or anybody who had any . He had heard you could find it in downtown Indianapolis . We went on a Friday and Saturday night trying to find some . NO LUCK !! I nor he knew ANYBODY who smoked pot in 1968 . I also left for the army then Vietnam in 68 , and nobody was smoking pot . Well nobody in our schools . Now when I came home in early 71 . Every F-ing buddy had pot ! All true . And as before . I know of nobody who did , or what have done the shit done in this movie when I was in H.S. This movie is set in the late 50's BTW . Have a good one ...@@mgmurphy1
I actually watch ancient flicks for that reason, but feel strange realizing that i am thinking "she's hot!" and suddenly realizing she's great granny's age.
Father right about this . The boy is not going to wreck another one of my cars ! Hell I would make my boy to buy his own cars and buy his own tires . I did and I am sure that father did .
Gotta love these 50s 'teens in trouble' films where all the teenagers look about 30, and all their parents look about 60 ;-)
true, but if you look at war documentaries kids were just older then, hard to explain why a 20 year old looks so young now. Kids reach puberty earlier now, but ten just stay kids until about 30. and adults? "my dad is another kid thats grown old"
And all their grandparents look about 90 and all their great grandparents look about 120.
Robert Fuller still alive and kicking. Turned 90 on July 29, 2023.
That has to be the LONGEST 1/4 mile dragstrip anywhere.
Most cars only did a shade under 20 seconds in the quarter back then. 100 hp was about average
They were street cars not racers. The daily driver with hi-test gas. Did you notice one driver wore an old style football helmet?
Their speeds were in the Low Hundreds.
😂
Hot Rod B movie ……I love it !!!!!!!!!
What a cool little story. I love these old Hot Rod stories. Especially when it's about family and the guy getting the girl at the end. The 29 Model A was Cool.
Wholesome goodness, I miss that.
Wholesome Goodness?? Fighting, playing chicken, stealing cars.
You're thinking of The Cleavers. The '50's were more Zip Guns, Switchblade and Brass Knuckles than Wally and The Beav'.
Fun to see Robert Fuller playing a rotten little punk !! So different from Jess on Laramie. 💜
24:00
Car Salesman - Bing Russell - Actor Kurt Russell's Father
26:42 Quote " If this thing can't go around the corner in 10 minuets i don't want it " :)
This is just a cool Hot Rod move 😎👍👍 Thank you for sharing 👍
Great seeing Robert Fuller in a '50's hot rod flick. Not used to seeing him
as the bad guy. This has a good story better than I expected.
Didn't he play the Dr. on Emergency?
@@robertmann7277 Dr. Brackett
@@robertmann7277 That's him, before Emergency he was in 2 western
TV shows Laramie & Wagon Train. He's still alive at 90.
@@WINGGULLSEAGULL He was great in those westerns.
The world has changed since then and not for the better!
That's for sure.
For who?
This is where it started. The breakdown of the family, with Dads spending way too much time @ work...like, waay more than with their kids.
@@knighttuttruptuttrup8518 a very general statement. Some better, worse overall. But I'm old enough to see the changes..
@@UberLummox apparently, only the rich. The rest of us get the sht stick!
Decent show of yesteryear and loved the old cars that I saw on the streets growing up back then......glad I watched it! Robert Fuller did a great job as a "bad guy" in this one.
It really is fun to see the cars I remember as a child.
Wish I had a girlfriend like Betty when I was young. She is just a sweetheart.
Not me. I'da got bored real quick!!!!
One of the best movies I've ever seen..so many life lessons shown 👍👍😎
How many films have you seen? Ten, fifteen, or even a whopping twenty?😉
@@16tons30 prolly like 20, 000. Like, waay too many lol
@Janx I also have seen about 20,000 movies (starting with Tarzan and Abbot & Costello etc.), and I guess that 19,900 of them were better than this one here. Perhaps I missed the irony in your post. But I must confess that I only watched the first ten minutes or so of Teenage Thunder and then started reading the comments. What do you think: Should I invest another 60 of those precious minutes remainig after a pretty long life?
@@16tons30 definitely worth it.
@@DoJ79 Don't listen to old man 16tons. He probably beats his kids and thinks learning things is bad.
First time seeing this show....Actually turned out to be a good show....Thanks for sharing
You must be of my generation calling it a good SHOW. No one uses that word for a movie any more.
@@garyolsen3409 I'm almost 80 years old and I never called a film a show. Nor have I ever heard anybody else call it that. It was a movie. Before my time, it was called a motion picture.
I could stand this movie for just about twenty minutes and gave up. I was a teenager back in the era of this film. Thankfully I was never involved with shenanigans like this. I must have lived a sheltered life.
The reason I watched this movie in the first place was because I wanted to see the location shots in the mid-1950's. I had hoped to see some old buses or trains. Trolleys would have been icing on the cake. I don't know where this movie was filmed. Probably somewhere near Los Angeles. The San Fernando Drag Strip was a good clue. If I had seen any old buses or trolleys, I could have identified the location. I'm a transportation historian.
@@Jeff-uj8xi The reason I commented was because you said, "first time seeing this SHOW." So now you've said it at least once if you never said it before
We used to call movies "shows," as in "going to the show." Hadn't thought of that in decades.
I wish I knew what part of L.A. this was filmed in. Love those ranch houses and that gas station!
Many of the scenes we're shot at Bracket airport ( Pomoa,CA )
San Fernando Valley
-Probably a strip mall now
Pacoima!! Sun Valley!!! SFV Road!!! Also where all of the Movie Car Rental places were, and BIKES too...back when. Well, a LOT of them. Got my old BSA chopper at one of the Last ones.....was orig. a Triumph/BSA dealer, then supplied wartime-painted scooters for a lot of the war movies in the 60's/70's etc.
Legend has it Johnny said hell with going back the service station. Month later Johnny and Betty booked town without ever paying for the car.
Johnny and Betty ended up in North Carolina after a few Moonshine bootleg runs. Ran into a fella named Lee Petty and Johnny ran ended up racing a few seasons with Nascar.
Johnny chain smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day and slamming 12 packs of beer at a time got to be to much and started butting heads with drivers and Nascar booted him out.
Johnny went back to his home town to work at the service station till 1979. Betty stayed in North Carolina and hooked up with Benny Parsons and has a few kids and lived happily ever after.
Shortly after 1980 Johnny moved somewhere in Indiana in a small trailer on some farm land dealing Luds and Cocaine out of the trailer and thats the last we heard from him.
Lmao...
Yeah....I remember that...😂
@@johnmccree8941 On a side note and update. Sgt Benson is, to this day, still manning the desk at the LAC, being overlooked for promotion for what amounts to be for decades.
Sgt Benson holds two National, state and local law enforcement records. The first for holding the longest ever position of police seargent, in the history of these United States.
Secondly for holding the record for the longest ever "On Duty' shift !
Edit: Rumor has it that Sgt Benson is currently being detained on the suspicion of being involved in the 7th largest Fentanil import ring in Orange County.
Further updates will be divulged as they come to hand.
LOL
@@lukebable PS: Love how a LIVE COP actually Always picks up the PHONE for the concerned citizen...every Time!! Those days are GONE!!
Every chance little Johnny had to screw up, he took full advantage of.
He is pretty consistent at that
😂
“Little” 19-year-old Johnny is more like 32.
Johnny's a real piece of work.
Same like he's missing about 400 spankings while he was growing up.
You beat your kids Billy boy? Just like your old man did to you? You turned out real good, huh.
This was good to watch. Kinda reminds me of my growing up days. Plus the car thing.
Nice story and guys, thx!
Loved it , thank you for posting 👍
I live to love and love to live a 50's livelihood.
As long as you were white ? 🤣🤣🤣🤣👌🏼
@@navydad8916🤦♂️
@@cvb6957 well ?
@@cvb6957 let’s rock!
Ok princess !
Good movie!
This looks like something that got thrown together when the actors and crew had some days off from the TV shows they were doing.
Back In The Day, it was actually easier to make a cheap movie in a few days, and somehow get it into drive-ins and such - below the radar, so to speak.
Check the credits, and compare them to TV shows and B-movies from the same era; you'll see the names of people who went on to long careers in Hollywood, extending 20 years or more.
Cheapies - they're FUN!
They're HISTORY!
They're AMERICA!
Hot rods are my passion ....and dragsters too 😊😊😊😊
The "kid" wanted to be like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.
I bet he didn't know that James Dean was gay, LOL 😅
The other night I watched one of these teen-angst movies that was much worse than this one. I think it was called The Wild Ride, and I watched it because a 23 year old Jack Nicholson starred in it. He was still wet behind the ears and there wasn't much even he could do with the truly crappy dialogue, but he was kinda fun to watch and you could tell he had some talent. I'm glad he didn't get discouraged and quit the biz altogether after that turkey...'cause he's given us a lot of great work over the years.
A trifecta...wins race...kicks opponents ass...marry betty....
Very interesting and informative article Thank you for your hard work& research. Yes the houses looked beautiful,sad to such change,+ abandonment. You have me now as subscriber to your channel. Jan from Vancouver BC 🇨🇦🪶☺️👍
Really enjoyed this video. It was LOL FUNNY. I've been a viewer for a while now and recently had extra time to do nothing but watch TV. I Binge watched WA from your very first video through the years. I gained a new respect and admiration for your dedication. Thank you.
Nice cars, but a 53.94 second quarter mile?
53.94?, why that's got be 20 or 30 mph at least!
Excellent for a footrace!
That's just under a 3: 36 mile, down there with the best mile relays!
With all the lane changing, it was actually a mile and a half.
Robert Fuller was a doll.
Hope you are female
@@Vinegarsoup yes last time I looked I was. 100% female crazy in love with my sweet Bobbie.....lol
@@FallenDragon56 He turns 90 next Saturday. Reach out to him and tell him that. I am sure he would appreciate knowing he still has fans.
Good old 50s hot rod movie
Bing Russell...Kurt's Dad as the car dealer.
Love the “wild” woman.
nice movie🤩
I was in my first year in '57. Wow, has my country changed.
In those days, 18 was still a kid. At that rate, Johnny will never leave Dad's place. 😂🤣
Great movie
Were there no rules about crossing into the other lane back then?
The kid is 18, lives in a house with 2 nice parents, has a pool and obviously many advantages but steal a car from a friend (who gave him a job and spoke up for him), steals a car from a car lot, speeds in a borrowed car and acts more like a 15 year old punk that a grown man. This guy is really messed up.
The Bert character, Johnny's boss, had way too much of the "Turn the other cheek" mindset. The kid vandalizes his station, steals his car, and Bert still treats him like some kind of hero. Not much of a coherent message for young people trying to develop a sense of right and wrong.
Very well said.
Look at our fake president
I like Betty's sister!
And I bet Mr. Simpson is bangin' Martha.
Everyone was.@@mikeellis9720
Liked this pic.
Why is he so down about not having a hat-rod? He’s got Betty. Weird that he can’t just ignore that Maury guy.
Better than kids these days that can't live without a social media account lol
1:16:02, 8:17 I like the way the hot rod and the (1950 ?) Oldsmobile seem to have almost exactly the same speedometer, with only a chrome ring added around the perimeter to make them a little different. This was a about as low budget as it gets. Still, it's good to see Robert Fuller playing a complete jerk in contrast to his generally positive roles. He also did a good job playing a pyromaniac in the "Fire" episode of Highway Patrol.
make it snappy
Don't hear that much anymore, anywhere.
Bing Russell was Kurt Russell's papa .
Betty can't wait to see Johnnie's hot rod.
The "Teenage Kisses" song sounds like it's from the 1920's instead of the 1950's.
Johnny looks like he's doing his best James Dean.
Overall, I like the film and the old Hot Rodz.
8;47- lil JOHNNY gets popped by the PO-lice.(hey Beave,,do ya think Lumpy will get in trouble too?)
I am not sure if this is a C movie or a D movie? Pretty good.
D+ 😉
Maybe an F movie?
parents like that did not let there kids get away with that crap.But they did have decent hair cuts
I liked how the guy in the control tower really took care of business
Teenage thunder today means most teens that are 280-300 lbs.
46:36 "Well, I just had my spark plugs replaced two weeks ago."
1:11:59 I have a feeling that for film purposes, this is going to be the longest drag race in the history of the sport!!!!
Most of locations are malls and subdivisions now.
Those bad girls…causing all the problems!!!
Where have they been? Did they go extinct?
PS: REMEMBER when the local gendarme actually PICKED UP the PHONE on the 1st RING? Yeah, ME NEITHER!!
1:04:57 "Palmdale??? Why that's like 10 MILES from here!"
57' correct!
was this filmed in a coal mine?
woikin in da coal mine dawump
I love happy endings.
27:28 "You remember that crack you made about all the stupid shit I do?..."
Fuel Injection was junk back then. Only Chevrolet, Desoto and Pontiac came factory fuel injected in 1957-1958.
Get your electric car out for sub 3 second 0 - 60 acceleration & drop all the fossils & their fuel.
@@briseboy When the infrastructure is ready, I’ll think about it. Can’t get away from the need for fuels though. Only difference is the exhaust pipe is relocated. Electric or conventional both need fuel 🤷♂
Excellent ending funny
46:04 "Okay, you two losers have to go. I've got to talk to my mechanic!"
When boys were boys and girls were girls
,,, and cars were cars,,, .
Still are.
Or as Johnny W. said '....when guitars were guitars, and men were men'. haha ('Golden Age of Rock & Roll')
@@blkft -and locomotives were locomotives,,,.
I grew up in the 70s , we were proud blue collar and hated 60 s hippies, most races got along and this was silicon valley.
Most 60s kids were republicans, see the Reagan and Trump voters for corroboration of this dementia.
I like how the dad went from a
hard ass to oh you want to steal cars no big deal!!
23:31 "I'm not worried about you doing anything wrong! It's the stupid shit you do that concerns me!!!"
40:36 "Careful...that's NOT in my blood!"
Anything with Bing Russell has to be a classic, no?
Glad Dad's paying for this one 😅
44:35 "So that blabbermouth is runnin all over town tellin everybody huh?"
Sgt Beson was played by Dan Matthews of the Highway Patrol
This was like a James Dean movie in some way...
( REBLE WITHOUT A CAUSE )
This one might be called Rebel Without a JOB
I miss those teenage kisses
Quite a pedophilic thought.
Two years after James Dean's Rebel they're giving a conscious fashion nod to a crisp white shirt and jacket...if this were in color it would be red
Good Story for the times we miss so much. & the butler didn't do it. 😁 8/6/23.
Love it
Mr Simmons doesn’t realize that his son John is a part of the Silent Generation. 😢
Ahhh, would tha they were silent as the claim. They brought you russian agent Trump.
Put more light on the camers
1:09:36 "WTF!!! And you're tellin me he needs people to help him get in trouble!!"
Is that the man? Broderick Crawford?
no.............thank God.....hard enough to get through the movie........
@@henerygreen578 Agree 100% . The only guys who did all the shit that this guy did ended up in prison . Speeding is one thing , stealing cars is another matter ! Though I grew up in the early / mid 60's in INDY . No normal boy would have done any of this shit !
@@indycharlieAccording to the script it's reality. 😁
@@indycharlie Well, no. By the mid-60's everybody was getting stoned. The culture had changed and these teen-angst, drive in movies went all psychedelic on us.
Well , maybe where you live . But I am 73 and I can tell you with 100% certainty . There was NO widespread use of pot in the-Indy area in the mid-60.s !! I had a buddy who lived in Hamilton Co. Indiana who got his draft notice in July 1968 . We had "heard " about pot via TV and Drive In shows. He wanted to score some and he nor I knew where to get any , or anybody who had any . He had heard you could find it in downtown Indianapolis . We went on a Friday and Saturday night trying to find some . NO LUCK !! I nor he knew ANYBODY who smoked pot in 1968 . I also left for the army then Vietnam in 68 , and nobody was smoking pot . Well nobody in our schools . Now when I came home in early 71 . Every F-ing buddy had pot ! All true . And as before . I know of nobody who did , or what have done the shit done in this movie when I was in H.S. This movie is set in the late 50's BTW . Have a good one ...@@mgmurphy1
betty'sa keeper
Betty is a nag!
I didn't know Joel Osteen was an actor ( hoodlum in the letterman jacket )
Drag racing. 1950s style. And today?
Ask the bearded skirts down on Castro Street, Key West, Nawlins.
film is too dark. couldn't watch it.
38:30 there he is folks, "Rebel Without a Cause."
Ah, the 1950s: when movies were bad, but the girls were good... and not fat and covered in tattoos and facial piercings!
I actually watch ancient flicks for that reason, but feel strange realizing that i am thinking "she's hot!" and suddenly realizing she's great granny's age.
No roll bar on either car...
Back then your head WAS the roll bar.
@@blkft your head rollbar?.. seems you'd need more than one head to equal the protection of one rollbarrrrrrrrr....
Not even for formula 1 racing.
Neither did Neanderthals have iphones, though their descendants have discovered the tool and make youtube comments.
your old man he's such a square
Betty's got car
1:18:11 We drag race at night!!! With no lights!!!
I need some Betty...
Father right about this . The boy is not going to wreck another one of my cars ! Hell I would make my boy to buy his own cars and buy his own tires . I did and I am sure that father did .
Bought my own everything, but older brother trashed the car as soon as i let him borrow it...
1:08:40 "My boy, don't need no help gettin into trouble".
35:50 Remember what you told him about stupid stuff?